Used in the context of heavy equipment, a “loader” is a type of tractor having a front-mounted rectangular wide bucket connected to the end of two hydraulic booms. A loader, may also be referred to as a bucket loader, front loader, front-end loader, payloader, scoop, shovel, skip loader, or wheel loader. It is most often a wheeled vehicle, although loaders moving about tracks are often used where the geography is not suitable for wheels. Loaders are commonly used to scoop material from ground level and dump it into a dump truck, hole, trench, bin, or the like. Depending on the intended application, a loader's design, components and specific functionality can vary significantly. However, many components are common to all types of loaders such as, for example, hydraulic booms that are attached to a tilting bucket.
Because front loader assemblies (e.g. booms and bucket) are often required for short operations and at infrequent intervals, such implements are normally detachably attached to a vehicle (i.e., “tractor”) so that the boom and bucket (i.e., “loader assembly”) can be removed from the tractor and parked. When detached from the tractor, the bucket portion of the loader assembly typically rests on the ground in an upright position. To keep the loader assembly in the upright position, the boom portions of the loader assembly can be configured to include a parking stand.
A parking stand is most often extended and retracted manually. When in the retracted position, the parking stand folds such that it is parallel to the boom and is secured by a lock or lever device. To “park” the loader assembly, the operator typically lowers the booms and tilts the bucket so that the flat portion of the bucket is level with and resting on the ground. The operator exits the cab and walks to the front of the tractor to disengage the parking stands and allow them to swivel and drop down into a rest position on the ground. When retracting the parking stands, the reverse is performed.
To ensure that the loader assembly can later be reattached without significant difficulty, the parking stands should be extended and locked into a precise position where the connectors on the loader assembly will align with the connectors on the tractor. At a minimum, the above steps represent a tedious and time consuming task. However, as can be true with any task requiring manual interaction with heavy equipment in an operational state, the manual process of setting and retracting parking stands exposes the operator to a number of hazards.